


Little Siblings

by avtorSola



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, will add tags as necessary - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:28:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22344862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avtorSola/pseuds/avtorSola
Summary: A tiny vessel is following Hornet...but why? What does it want?(family)A series of tiny ficlets about my two OCs, Tear and Honey!
Comments: 8
Kudos: 37





	Little Siblings

**Author's Note:**

> First Hollow Knight fic! :O   
> I really love this game.  
> I have fanart for my OCs - one is made with a picrew and is here: https://avtorsola.tumblr.com/post/190376815921/hollow-knight-ocs  
> And the other I drew myself and is here: https://avtorsola.tumblr.com/post/190377950926/honey-is-so-cute

It was following her, and she did not like it. But she kept leaping through grasses that brushed her horns with gentle tickling strokes, ignoring the little ghost behind her.

Normally, she wouldn’t have hesitated. Several of them had found her before – or rather, she had found _them_ – and she’d made short work of them. Many of them were weak little things, just strong enough to clamber out of that dark, corpse-covered hole. But her Nail sent them back quickly enough, tiny shadows crying voicelessly as they sank back into the darkness they’d been born in.

Sometimes she felt a little bit guilty about putting them back in that solemn, silent abyss.

But the alternative was letting a weak Vessel crack the same way the current one had. The one hope that her sort-of father had was flawed, and she couldn’t let just any Vessel fix the problem. It could only be the strongest, most perfect Vessel.

So she kept challenging them. And they kept dying.

Until this one.

It was small, like most of the Vessels, with two stubby little horns and a tiny pair of spikes on either side of their mask. However, this one had an odd Nail, longer than usual with a ring in the end, and glowing light in their eyes, like the infection but in a pretty shade of rain-blue.

Oh, and it did one, very strange thing.

It ran away.

She’d challenged it at first, thinking the tiny thing was simply another Vessel to fight and test, but it hadn’t even pulled out its Nail. It had simply run, skittering away and hiding behind a tall rock, then disappearing into the tall grass of Greenpath. She’d watched for a few minutes, puzzled, then turned around and started leaping again.

This time, she’d started listening, and soon she was able to hear the faint rustling of the leaves and plants behind her. It was a clever thing, she’d give it that. She’d paused again, startling the Vessel that followed her, and when she didn’t move it slowly crept into view blue light blinking in the hollow eyes. For a moment, it had just watched. And this time, when she threw her nail she chipped its mask. It made no sound, but jerked away sharply, running full tilt back into the bushes and vanishing from her sight.

No matter how she looked, or how she paused and waited, she’d never gotten a good hit on it since. And gradually, she’d come to respect that, in a patient, permissive sort of manner that essentially acknowledged its survival skills. It had to have some skill to keep avoiding her attacks, after all. Yet it never once showed any desire to do anything about the seal. It had none of the fighting instinct its fellows did, despite having a very well-made Nail. It was simply content to be.

So she stopped attacking it. After all, it wasn’t really going to cause too many problems if it was hanging around her, Greenpath and Deepnest.

The constant watching was getting on her nerves though.

The grasses started to fade, brief, familiar tendrils of cobwebs brushing a plated cheek, and she jumped easily into the long pit, Deepnest crackling to life around her. The soft chitters of skittering arachnid feet on stone pinged off the stony walls, fine lines of webbing stretching across the dark channel, and she tiptoed off each one on her way down, careful not to break the slender threads. Silk took energy to produce, and she wasn’t about to waste the efforts of her Little Weavers.

The tiny Vessel tumbled down after her, as it usually did, and landed flat on its small face. Hornet blinked at it once, slightly amused despite herself, and turned away with a flick of her red cloak. Spiders clacked at her as she passed, many eyes flickering at her, and she kept running, her Nail clinking on her back, tiny ‘tinks’ echoing as it bounced against her carapace.

The Vessel tottered after her still, blue eyes glowing slightly in the dark, hopping after her on stubby legs. And for the first time, Hornet saw something in her shadow’s slightly clumsy movements.

It was copying her.

It was the first time she’d seen such a thing from one of the Pale King’s many failed children, and it made her stop again, watching as the little creature jumped lightly onto a thin string of spider silk and hopped off, all without damaging the webbing. It really was a clever little thing, mimicking her movements. Was that why it had been watching her?

It ducked behind a nearby pile of cocooned bugs and rocks after a moment, the tip of its short horns just poking over the edge of a grey stone. Hm. It usually was better at hiding. But then again, she didn’t often come to Deepnest. It probably didn’t have much practice.

One blue eye blinked around the corner. Ah. Definitely no practice.

Hornet sighed. This one was one of the Pale King’s defective Vessels, then, for it clearly had a mind and will of its own – two weaknesses the moth goddess would easily be able to exploit. It wouldn’t do as a replacement for Hollow – no matter how she looked at it.

But she still didn’t attack it. Not this time. After all, it was lonely being an only child. Even if the watching was weird. She blinked at it again, the low gloom of Deepnest like sunshine to her keen stare.

“Do you have a reason for following me, little Vessel?”

The blue eye wavered a bit, blue ooze gathering at the round corner and bubbling up like a strange infection. Hornet glared at it, unsure of what to do. It wasn’t infected, that much was clear. But then what was the blue?

The blue ooze fell to the ground in a single fat dollop, a tiny patch of glowing light. Was it crying? She wondered. Perhaps it was, for that one single tear sat on the stone as evidence.

“...”

It said nothing even after a long silence, only stared from behind its rock with the fat teardrop glowing on the ground. And finally, Hornet had enough. This one was clearly messed up somehow. It wouldn’t be able to do anything to the seals even if it wanted to – which it clearly didn’t. Interesting. How in Hallownest had it escaped if it didn’t want to fight?

“Just a tear, hm? Do you know what happened to you, I wonder?”

The tiny white head nodded once then, its first attempt at communication since it had begun to follow her, and Hornet felt a sudden pang of pity for the small bug. Oh. That was unusual for a Vessel. Maybe that was why it was following her instead of trying to fight her, as they mostly did. Remembering its imprisonment in the pitch darkness of a corpse-littered birthplace would certainly sour its impression of the whole affair.

Perhaps she should wait to see what this one would do before she killed it.

“…Tear.” She said. “A Tear for your loss. I understand a little more now.”

And when she leapt away this time, the small vessel didn’t bother to hide.


End file.
